Annual Report 2010/11
Appendix 2
Detailed Report on Delivery of Priorities
Housing
The Housing Services Team has had a successful year despite an increase in caseload volumes,
achieving well against most of the corporate and service plan targets set for the service.
With respect to the provision of new affordable homes, the service was on target to deliver almost
the 100 unit target figure – 96 units were anticipated for delivery during the year made up of 84
new units and 12 conversions from under-used temporary accommodation being converted to
permanent units, but at the last minute some issues were experienced with the connection of water
meters into 33 new units at Lodge Close, Holt meaning that their completion rolled over into April.
The units are however now completed and occupied and will be counted against 11/12 delivery.
Looking to 11/12 there is a good pipeline of schemes funded and scheduled to commence during
the year – with 89 starts anticipated. At this time it is not known how many of these units will
complete by end March 2012, but with the 33 units at Lodge Close, Holt falling into 11/12 it is
anticipated that there will be between 90 and 100 units completed in the year. Looking beyond
11/12, there is considerable uncertainty concerning the delivery of affordable units with less
funding available through the HCA, our principal Registered Provider looking at the disposal of
some properties to finance new builds resulting in only a modest net gain of units in their portfolio
in the future and some uncertainty as to the number of units which will be delivered through market
developments on viability grounds given the protracted weakness in the economy. In this respect it
is believed it will be necessary to revise the Corporate Plan target for the number of new affordable
homes built downwards from the current 100 units per year.
The number of units re-let through the Your Choice: Your Home Scheme during 10/11 reflects that
achieved in recent previous years – with 394 lettings achieved against a target of 400 lets.
The number of homelessness applications received and accepted during the year has risen
significantly compared to recent years, reflecting household pressures due to the weakness of the
economy. There have not been many presentations on the grounds of people losing their homes
through re-possession, but there is some evidence of household break-up and people losing
private rented accommodation for a variety of reasons. Despite the increased numbers of
homelessness acceptances, the Team have maintained low numbers of households placed in
temporary accommodation and the Your Choice: Your Home scheme is allowing people with Band
1 priority (including households accepted as homeless) to secure permanent accommodation quite
quickly.
Performance around empty homes remains challenging through the Council’s historic emphasis in
offering grants to property owners to bring empty units back into use. Some good work has been
achieved in respect of a small number of properties where the Team have threatened enforcement
action bring about some action on behalf of owners. However, to deliver any real progress in this
respect, the Council will have to be prepared to adopt a more robust approach with respect to the
exercise of CPO powers if some of the most longstanding empty properties are to be brought back
into use.
The number of Disabled Facilities Grants approved during the year at 170 exceeded the target of
150 and processing times remain good, since the clearing of the backlog of applications which
existed in 2008/09. During the year a pilot approach has been developed with respect to providing
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a more comprehensive service to disabled Victory Housing Trust tenants, delivering better
outcomes for vulnerable tenants and better planned investment in and use of Trust stock.
During the year the Housing Team have also delivered against the Sustainability Board’s objective
in wishing to develop and take forward a fuel poverty initiative through the launch of the Stay Warm
and Cosy programme.
Steve Blatch, Strategic Director - Community
Employment and training
Despite the continued economic uncertainty at a national level, there are some signs of economic
recovery across many sectors in the district, which the Economic Development Team continues to
support.
In addition to handling a large volume of business start up, growth and small-scale inward
investment type enquiries (the latter largely being in the retail and hospitality sectors), the
Economic Development Team continues to provide support to a number of larger businesses in the
district with respect to future investment plans.
Where there is continued market weakness or the district is possibly disadvantaged because of
structural weakness in its economy, the Economic Development Team has continued to lobby for
and access external funding for the benefit of the District and its businesses for example through
co-ordinating the delivery of the Pathfinder Business Support Programme and the development of
a business plan for the North Norfolk Fishing Local Action Group, as well as participating in
regional and sub-regional activity through the emerging New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership
and working with partners at a Norfolk level – such as through the recent broadband campaign.
The team continues to engage with and support the work of the North Norfolk Business Forum and
its various sector groupings and through the Learning for Everyone Team continues to deliver and
co-ordinate learning, skills development and redundancy advice in locations across the district
where national providers fail to deliver significant programmes in rural areas such as North Norfolk.
The Learning for Everyone Team continues to bid for new contract opportunities so as to maintain
local provision across the District although with the current public expenditure pressures it is not
known at present whether the current level of provision can be maintained beyond March 2012.
Steve Blatch, Strategic Director - Community
Leisure and culture
Last year we have had many successes. The most significant is that we have surpassed the
Sports and Leisure Centre participation target for the first time in four years. This is a tremendous
achievement considering the difficult financial climate within which we still operate. The KICKZ
project which takes place at North Walsham Sports Centre has been a huge success reducing
anti-social behaviour and crime by 56% and 25% respectively.
Cromer Museum has had an excellent year with a visitor increase of approximately 20%.
We have retained the Green Flag award at Holt Country Park, the sixth year in succession.
We have delivered 54 events at our woodland sites, which has surpassed the corporate target of
50 events per year.
We completed two Playbuilder schemes delivering new play areas at Fakenham and North
Walsham that provide new play equipment for young people.
We achieved Blue Flag status at Cromer, Sheringham and Sea Palling beaches. Unfortunately we
lost the Blue Flag at Mundesley in 2010 however this was due to poor water quality which is out of
our control.
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The RNLI provided a first class beach safety service which included East Runton for the first time
ever in 2010. Visitor numbers at East Runton beach were very high, which fully demonstrates the
need for a lifeguarding service at this resort.
Both Sheringham Little Theatre and the Pavilion Theatre Cromer have had good years, although
figures are slightly down due to the difficult economic climate.
We delivered four very successful concerts as part of Orchestras Live with over 500 people
attending the series.
The Arts Officer is supporting the growth in Arts Festival across the district with now 17 Festivals
taking place each year.
The Fit Together walking project continues to go from strength to strength with members
increasing to over 1,500 and over 50 volunteers.
The Mobile Gym project has had its best year ever. Monthly attendances have now increased to
well over 600 - delivering exercise to those hard to reach communities; people that need it most.
Nick Baker, Strategic Director - Environment
Community Engagement
The review of the Communication Strategy has been completed and a revised draft strategy will be
presented to Cabinet in September.
The media plan is in place, as is the electronic media diary; both are working and the amount of
media coverage is increasing as a result.
Signage across the District has improved greatly and so has the quality of printed literature,
including Outlook, and a rolling audit of all printed material now operates continuously. Outlook is
increasingly 'selling' space for supplements to appropriate external bodies (e.g. The Police,
Openwide International) to assist offset production and distribution costs, although the current
economic climate might reduce such interest.
The image library on the 'Community Server' intranet is now being populated.
The Corporate Identity Manual has also been completed, distributed and implemented very
successfully, improving corporate branding and signage, while work on implementing the results of
the Disability and Equality Impact Assessment continues.
The Cash Office was closed successfully and new processes in relation to the cashiering provision
are in place.
The implementation of "Tell Us Once" is on track with a go live date of the 22nd June.
A successful Member Induction event has been held with more than half the attendees standing for
election as councillors.
The General Election that took place on 6 May 2010 was well planned and execution has been
good.
Tony Ing, Strategic Director - Information
Environmental sustainability and biodiversity
2010/11 was a tough year for waste and recycling targets. A continuation of the recession has
seen a reduction in recyclable material being collected across the County, with a subsequent
adverse effect on recycling rates. This, along with higher than expected contamination rates from
the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) has resulted in a recycling rate of under 45% for the 2nd
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year running. However, the buoyant materials markets have meant that the value of material has
been high, and the Council has therefore seen an increase in the profit share received from the
NEWS contract. It is expected that improvements to the MRF currently underway will reduce
contamination throughout 2011/12, and we will continue to promote our services in order to ensure
that material is as clean as possible when placed in recycling bins.
Our Garden Bin service has also been static, with approximately 15,500 customers. This has
meant that the tonnage of material collected through this service has not increased enough to
affect recycling rates positively. We will look to proactively sell this service during the coming year,
and the inclusion of shredded paper in brown bins may increase tonnages, albeit slightly.
Our trade service has continued to grow, and with recycling sacks available as part of the contract
with Kier we are confident that we will grow the service further, with help from our salesperson.
Cleansing has been another success story - we have achieved further success with the District
Bronze Award at the Clean Britain Awards, and this has been backed up with excellent national
indicator (NI 195) results, with litter being deemed to be a problem in only 1% of North Norfolk
streets.
Our partnership with Kier will help to develop services further in the coming year and
beyond. Following the challenge of mobilisation we will look to increase services to residents and
improve on those already in place. Kier are showing a proactive approach to service delivery that
will enable us to aim for new stretched targets across the waste and cleansing services.
Nick Baker, Strategic Director - Environment
Tourism
Tourism remains a significant element of the District’s economy with the large numbers of tourist
visitors to the area supporting and sustaining local services which might otherwise be difficult for
local communities to sustain. With continued economic uncertainty and tensions in some popular
overseas holiday destinations, larger numbers of people are taking domestic holidays and levels of
bookings during 2010 and anticipated for 2011 are strong. There are still some changes taking
place within the local tourism sector – with some more traditional bed and breakfast and small
hotel businesses facing challenges and turnover in ownership; but overall there appears to be
continued investment in the district’s tourism offer and emerging new trends such as farm shops,
emphasis on local foods and environmental tourism.
Through the Tourism Round Table the Council is reviewing its future approach to the marketing of
the district, considering a proposal to move away from the production of a printed guide and
placing increased emphasis on web-based and social network marketing approaches and this will
be an area for further development in the future.
Steve Blatch, Strategic Director - Community
Planning and coastal management
The Planning and Coastal Management Services have delivered on most if not all of their
corporate and service objectives during the year, despite increased caseload volumes and
complexity, public scrutiny and delivering on financial savings targets through a restructuring of the
Planning Service.
The Coastal Management Team have concentrated activity on the delivery of the Pathfinder
Programme, taking forward pilot projects across a number of themes and areas as part of this
national learning programme; culminating in the hosting of a successful conference event in March
at which our experience and learning was shared with representatives of other Pathfinder areas.
During 2010 significant research and background analysis was commissioned to inform the
Council’s approach to the purchase of high risk properties at Happisburgh for demolition and
exploring the concept of buy to lease schemes, as well as proposing the roll-back of facilities at
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Happisburgh, Trimingham and Cromer. Some of these projects will be delivered in a visible way
during 2011, based upon the detailed work undertaken previously.
In addition to the Pathfinder programme the Coastal Management Team have continued to deliver
the coast protection works programme and bid for external funds to support future programme
investment, continued to articulate local communities’ concerns about the Kelling to Lowestoft SMP
and develop knowledge and understanding of emerging marine planning policy frameworks – work
which will be of increasing importance in the future given the national profile of this work and
development pressures / conflicts between offshore uses off of the North Norfolk Coast – gas
installations and pipelines, development of offshore wind schemes, fishing, nature conservation
and tourism interests.
Caseload volumes with the Planning service have increased significantly over the year and this is
placing pressure on Development Management, Conservation and Design and Landscape staff.
Notwithstanding these pressures, good progress has been made on the review of Conservation
Areas and a new Conservation Area was designated during the year at the former RAF Coltishall
site. The review of Tree Preservation Orders across the District (identified in a previous internal
audit report) was almost completed during the year, with only a small number of Orders remaining
to be reviewed.
The increased volume of planning applications over 2008/09 and 09/10, whilst bringing additional
income into the authority, has placed pressure on the Development Management Team which in
recent years had delivered quite large financial savings on the back of a restructure proposed on
the basis of reduced caseload volumes. With the increase in volumes now being experienced staff
are under increasing pressure to the point that the speed of processing applications is now falling
away and staff are reporting increased levels of stress through the Council’s appraisal and regular
staff meeting processes. Whilst the longstanding supermarket applications at Sheringham have
been determined and complaints to the Ombudsman successfully being determined in the
Council’s favour which has undoubtedly removed some pressure from the Development
Management Team, there are a number of large and complex applications still with the authority
(cable routes to serve offshore wind energy developments, proposals at Bacton Gas Terminal,
former RAF Coltishall site) which are complex and of significant public interest which continue to
place pressure on the team.
During 2010, the Planning Policy Team accommodated the Examination of the Site Specific
Proposals Development Plan Document, which was declared sound by the Planning Inspector and
adopted by the Council in February 2011. This document includes the first allocations of land for
residential development in the district for over 20 years and whilst a significant milestone does
identify further work for the team in the future as it seeks to develop development briefs and hold
negotiations with landowners and developers regarding the delivery of schemes which create good
quality developments, well integrated with established communities – hopefully in a timely way
which will allow the Council to maximise opportunities to secure monies through the New Homes
Bonus regime.
A restructuring of the Property Information Team is intended to provide greater flexibility and
resilience to this service area where the administration of Land Charges continues to be a high
quality service, although with significant uncertainty around levels of fee income in the future. The
Team supported the successful delivery of Census 2011 in North Norfolk through working closely
with ONS in resolving address data matching issues across the district early on in the Census
preparation process.
Steve Blatch, Strategic Director – Community
A clean and pollution-free District
North Norfolk earned the title of cleanest District in the country in 2009, winning the top trophy (as
well as the Best District award and a five-star rating) in the 2008/09 Clean Britain Awards. Levels
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of litter have been kept exceptionally low (as assessed by independent consultants), while air
quality standards are being met across North Norfolk. Contaminated land continues to be cleaned
and made useable, and investigations of potentially contaminated sites are ongoing, with highest
risk sites being targeted first.
High levels of compliance with the requirements for permitted processes continue to be observed
with all businesses receiving inspections during the year. We have investigated 135 reports of dog
fouling, and have regular patrols across the district. In addition to enforcement activities, officers
have undertaken a number of education campaigns (often in partnership with other agencies). All
374 reported cases of flytipping have been investigated, most within two days. Of these, 51
investigations led to some form of formal action, from prosecution to warning letters. This
represents an intervention in 1 in 8 cases which is extremely high. Additionally, 914 duty of care
inspections have been undertaken during the year. The Council continues to be graded as "very
effective" by the Government for dealing with flytipping.
Nick Baker, Strategic Director - Environment
First Class Resource Management
Service priority delivery and performance for ICT, Legal and Reprographics in 2010/11 was
effective in meeting key objectives. This has resulted in a number of efficiency gains and savings
as set out in individual service development plans.
There have been several significant developments during the year to which the services have
responded effectively, managing the available resources to meet new challenges and demands
while staying on track with agreed priorities.
The ICT service made a significant contribution to the Revenues and Benefits shared services
business case last year which will be used as a basis for the replacement of their Application
software project this year. The ICT service will also be working on improving network security,
virtualisation of servers, a new Asset management system and replacing the Payments
administration systems. A business case is being carried out into the possibility of shared ICT
services with Kings Lynn.
Legal Services reported the completion of significant objectives/projects in the area of the Council's
Corporate Governance. Standards and governance issues need to be kept under review in the
light of changing legal requirements (e.g. councillor call for action, petitions etc) and experience
(e.g. Code of Conduct procedures).
The external print room income target was achieved for 2010/11.
The print room print equipment had come to the end of its contract. The printing equipment was
tendered through the Buying Solutions framework successfully and installed in December 2010 on
a 3 year contract.
Tony Ing, Strategic Director – Information
There has been a real push over the past 12 months to review key documentation and processes
in Human Resources (HR) and to focus on providing practical guidance and information for
managers and staff through the intranet. As a result of this work, there is now a dedicated HR
webpage on the intranet for staff and managers to access. The HR team were the only Payroll/HR
team to receive a good assurance through the audit processes this year assessed by the audit
partnership.
Policy review and development has been on-going in areas such as the Attendance and authorised
absence policy and the transgender policy.
The team have also provided advice/support on the restructuring and redundancy processes which
took place last year along with technical support in relation to shared services.
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The work on pay and grading has been on-going.
The Policy and Performance Team reviewed the service planning process, completed the Data
Quality Action Plan, carried out a review of the Performance Management Framework, drafted a
Policy Management Framework, embedded Risk Management within services and reviewed and
implemented insurance claims procedures.
All of the above work has lead to improved corporate governance and more effective and efficient
management of the Council and its employees.
Sheila Oxtoby, Deputy Chief Executive
Equality and Diversity
The Council has a statutory duty to:
1. eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
2. advance equality of opportunity between different groups; and
3. foster good relations between different groups by tackling prejudice and promoting
understanding.
The equality legsilation applies in repsect of :disability, age, sex, race, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion and belief, marriage and civil partnerships as well
as pregnancy and maternity.
In the last financial year the Council adopted it’s updated Combined Equality Scheme.
Within it our equality priorities are:
•
•
•
•
•
Community Safety & Access to Justice.
Modernising Public Services.
Power Sharing.
Employment & Pay.
Organisational Capacity.
Community Safety and Access to Justice
As well as our responsibilities in the Equality Act to eliminate harassment and
vicitmisation, the Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, places a responsibility on
the Council to pay due regard to the likely effect of our functions on and the need to do all
that we reasonably can to prevent crime and disorder in our district. Our two main
concerns in relation to crime and equality are Domestic Abuse and Hate Crime.
People can experience Hate Crime because of their actual or perceived age, disability,
cultural, ethnic, national or racial origin, their gender or gender identity, their religion,
sexual orientation or some other aspect of their appearance or lifestyle and it’s impact is
devastating. We know that around 80-90% of it goes un-reported. Therefore, our first
priority is to increase reporting so we are better informed to develop interventions which
are effective in reducing this crime. In this last year we have developed a Hate Crime
reporting protocol so we have processes in place to become a reporting centre for Hate.
In addition to this we funded a specialist community organisation to provide advice to
residents who experience discrimination and continued to provide our Employee
Assistance Programme which provides staff with: Stress and emotional counseling, Debt
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counseling, Legal guidance, Health & Wellbeing information, and Financial and tax
information.
In terms of our preventative work we support activities which raise awareness and reduce
ignorance in order to reduce prejudice and therefore the likelihood of Hate Crimes.
Through our work with other statutory agencies we support Black History Month and were
proud to fly the rainbow flag again during Lesbian and Gay Bisexual and Trans (LGBT)
History month, supported Disability Pride and supported our first community Hate Vigil with
our local North Norfolk Pride group in October 2010. Our staff and members also gave up
their own time to provide the biggest haul of knitted squares in the County for Norwich
Pride's Knit with Pride campaign.
Reducing violent crime by 15% and supporting victims of Domestic abuse is a top priority
for the North Norfolk Safer Communities Partnership (NNSCP). Nearly half of all violent
crime in the District is Domestic Abuse or Sexual Violence and on average it takes 35
incidents of abuse before women will report an incidence of Domestic Abuse to the Police.
We would like to see increased and quicker reporting of Domestic Abuse to ensure victims
get the right support and are safe. Following a review into Domestic Abuse in North
Norfolk in January 2010, we have submitted bids for funding for outreach work, developed
guidance for our managers and staff setting out how we can support them if they are a
victim of Domestic Abuse e.g. change in working hours or location, and have completed
awareness raising training with frontline staff, so they can advise people where they can
access specialist Domestic Abuse organisations who can provide the advice and support
they need.
Modernising Public Services
As part of our work to improve equality for our residents, our work during 2010-11 has
included continued support for community transport schemes, the development of a Health
Strategy to improve health and address health inequalities. We have also worked with The
North Norfolk Sports & Leisure Action Group to set up regular Multi-sports sessions for
disabled residents in our dual use sports centres. The Council has introduced a policy and
changed its procedures with regards Procurement to enable small and medium size
enterprises to also apply for public sector contracts. We also enable disabled residents to
live independently in their own home via the provision of disabled facilities grant.
Power sharing
A critical part of providing fair and accessible services is about knowing the impact our
services have on peoples’ lives. We do this through a process called Equality Impact
Assessments (EQIAs). To do that we need to understand our residents’ needs, aspirations
and experience of our services. We do this in a number of ways including:
•
Consulting with our residents.
•
Encouraging people to stand for election.
•
Helping our elected representatives to be good representatives
•
Encouraging residents to vote.
The Council’s Community Empowerment Equality Impact Assessment found that
only 31% of people with learning disabilities voted in the 2001 general elections in
comparison to 59% of the rest of the population. Nationally around 2% of the population
have a learning difficulty which equates to around 2000 residents in our District. The
Council also has a statutory duty to encourage participation by disabled persons in public
life. In 2010 we ran a trial of a Voting Project to encourage people with learning difficulties
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to vote in the general election. We designed the project in conjunction with Voluntary
Norfolk and Opening Doors, formerly People First, to design and shape the project.
Members of Opening Doors were trained and supported to design and deliver two training
sessions to their peers and transport was provided to increase access to the sessions. 16
participants who had never voted before attended the training. Following the training
almost half of all those who attended went on to use their vote.
This year we also participated in the Vocal Local Campaign. The campaign, which was a
collaboration by Norfolk local authorities, aimed to raise residents awareness of where
they could get involved in their community from volunteering to standing for election. In
North Norfolk we:
• invited the ‘cam cab’ to Fakenham Market (a Taxi where people could have their
say),
• held a ‘candi-dating’ campaign for residents to find out more about becoming a
councillor,
• ran a vocal local beer mat campaign to target younger residents and encourage
them to stand for election, and
• used our household magazine Outlook to highlight the campaign and direct them to
the vocal local website.
The campaign resulted in an increase in the number of residents who feel they can
influence decisions about their local area.
We continued with our pilot project Branching Out in Your Community with Ashmanhaugh
Parish Council where we are supporting the Council to work with their residents to
increase the number and range of people standing for election.
As outlined above, a critical part of delivering good services is knowing if they are
accessible and having the impact we intend. Some times we use large scale surveys, but
these methodologies aren’t well used by certain groups, such as younger residents and
don’t suit consultation with minority groups. This means that where we feel we do not
have a good grasp of some of our resident’s views, we will complete other types of
engagement work to ensure we have a complete picture of our residents needs. Below
are details of engagement work we have completed in 2010/2011.
Disability Pilot Project
In partnership with other local authorities we have worked with Disabled residents to
generate priorities for us to work on in respect of developing accessible services and safe
communities. The project involved reviewing existing disability research and information
in Norfolk to identify potential priorities for local authorities, interviews with our managers
to test out if they should be acted upon or whether sufficient work was already taking
place. We are now working to develop local action in North Norfolk which will help
contribute to these objectives, which will ultimately improve the quality of life for disabled
residents.
North Norfolk Pride
One of the gaps in our knowledge about our resident’s experience of our services was that
of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transsexual residents. During 2010/11 the Council, along
with partners Voluntary Norfolk, supported the development of North Norfolk Pride who are
now having success in applying for grants to carry out community work which aims to
address prejudice and promote understanding. It also enables the Council to ensure our
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consultation, on our services and policies, is holistic.
North Norfolk Youth Voice
North Norfolk Youth voice was set up to identify opportunities where young people aged
13 – 24 who live in North Norfolk can have more of a voice in the design and delivery of
services for young people. During 2010/11 the group has made presentations to parish
councils about how they can involve young people in their communities and also
conducted a North Norfolk wide consultation to develop the Youth Inclusion Strategy and
action plan which will increase the voice of young people in public sector planning and
decision making.
Employment & Pay
The key issues for the Council in terms of employment are: equal pay, fair employment
practices and ensuring our employment policy and practices are up to date with
employment law. It is over 30 years since the Equal Pay Act, but a gender pay gap of 16%
still exists between men and women and in retirement, on average, women have 40% less
income. In addition to this an Equality Impact assessment of our recruitment policies
showed that 3.48% of the NNDC workforce identify as disabled compared to 15.63% of the
district population who are economically active. In addition, new legislation relating to
Transgender employees meant we also needed to update our policies and practices in this
respect.
We are pleased to have completed our Pay Audit, achieved the Positive about Disability
Two Ticks status and new Transsexuality guidance has been created for our managers
and staff to ensure that anyone who is transitioning or has transitioned is fully supported at
work and is not victimised or harassed.
An essential part of our role as employer is to monitor our practices to ensure we do not
discriminate. We do this via monitoring and regular communication with our staff. During
this last year we have introduced Sexual Orientation and Religion and Belief into our work
force monitoring. Work force monitoring means we can monitor patterns in our
employment so we can spot any potential areas of discrimination. We also completed our
Bi-annual staff survey and investigated, with our disabled staff, the establishment of a
disabled staff network. At this time staff are happy with other forms of communication,
including one to one support with our HR Team, though this remains an option for the
future should our disabled staff feel it would be beneficial.
An essential part of being a fair employer involves assessing the impact of our existing or
new policies on staff. We do this through a process called Equality Impact Assessments
(EQIA). During 2010/11 we completed EQIAs for the policies listed below: Transgender
Policy and Procedures, Domestic Abuse Guidance , Attendance and Authorised Absence
Policy and Procedures as well as Pensions, Retirement and Discretionary Compensation
Payments - Policy Statements
As well as improving equality within our own organisation we are concerned to address
inequality in employment within the community of North Norfolk as it is key to financial
inclusion and therefore life opportunities. During the last financial year we have continued
to provide an employment and training Information, Advice and Guidance service for
residents and have established an Employment Board with key partner agencies to review
unemployment trends and the availability and effectiveness of services which support our
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residents back to work.
Organisational Capacity
In order to deliver our project and equality objectives, we need to invest in developing our
systems and staff to make the progress required to deliver fair and equitable services and
a safe community for our residents, visitors and employees.
We delivered monitoring training to our managers to ensure that appropriate systems are
put in place to monitor how well our services are working for our residents and reviewed
our equalities training for staff and members. We have created a population profile for our
Black and Minority ethnic residents to aid our planning and engagement work and
reviewed our progress against the Local Government Equality Standard.
Financial Summary
The final outturn position for 2010/11 allowed the Council to earmark money at the end of the year
for a number of ongoing projects. This was mainly due to the receipt of either unbudgeted or
additional grants in the year which were not fully spent in the year but have been fully allocated or
where funds had not been expended as planned in the year.
The year end position also allowed an additional £328,000 to be transferred to the Council’s
general reserve which will be reviewed along with all reserves over the autumn as part of the
annual financial planning process.
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Revenue Resources 2010/11
Revenue Support Grant
(Government)
Redistributed non
domestic rates
(Government)
Council taxpayers
Net cost of services
Central Services to the
public
Cultural, environmental
and planning services
Trading Undertakings
(industrial estates and
markets)
Highways, roads and
transport
Other housing services
Corporate and
democratic core
Capital
Capital expenditure totalled £2.8 million in the year on a number of projects. There was some
slippage between financial years during the year where schemes were not able to commence or be
completed within the planned timeframes. Housing capital schemes amounted to £1.4 million of the
total capital spend. This included private sector renewal grants and disabled facility grants along
with support to Housing Associations for Affordable Housing projects. Non housing capital spend in
the year included works on a number of the Council’s assets including improvements to public
conveniences and car parks, there was also expenditure on various computer systems and
associated assets to improve ways of working. Capital spend on coastal projects totalled £406,000
in the year for which the majority related to the Coastal Pathfinder project.
Capital expenditure is incurred on items that have a useful life beyond one year for example
upgrading and improving assets such as equipment and buildings. Such expenditure is financed
from grants, capital receipts, reserves and revenue contributions.
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Capital Financing 2010/11
Capital receipts
Government grants
Reserves
Revenue
Reserves and Balances
The Council has a policy of maintaining the general fund balance above £950,000 and at the end
of 2010/11 this figure was at just over £1.3 million. In addition the Council has a number of
earmarked reserves held to fund future one off projects or where there is a need to hold a
contingency to meet future liabilities. The total of all earmarked reserves held at 31 March 2011
was £5.2million of which there is planned usage over the next two years of 2011/12 of £2.4million.
All reserves and balances along with current commitments are reviewed annually.
In addition to these reserves there is a further balance of capital receipts of just over £10million at
the year end. Capital receipts are generated from asset sales and must be used to finance capital
expenditure. The balance of receipts currently held largely represents the balance of the capital
receipt following the housing stock transfer in 2006 after repayment of the associated debt. While
the capital receipts are available to finance future capital expenditure, the balance along with all
other reserves earns investment income which supported the revenue account during 2010/11 in
the region of £547,000.
Reserves - Balance at 31 March 2011
Capital projects
Other earmarked
reserves
General Fund balance
Annual Report 2010/11, v 0.02
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Document Information
Document Name
Document Description
Document Status
Lead Officer
Sponsor
Produced by (service name)
Relevant to the services listed or all NNDC
Approved by
Approval date
Type of document
Equality Impact Assessment details
Review interval
Next review date
Version
0.01
Annual Report 2010/11
Appendix 2
Detailed report on delivery of priorities
Monitoring report of the delivery of the corporate
plan and the achievements of NNDC
Final Draft
Helen Thomas, Policy and Performance
Management Officer
Sheila Oxtoby, Deputy Chief Executive
Organisational Development, Policy and
Performance
All NNDC
Cabinet
Monitoring report
Not required
Not relevant
Not applicable
Description
Final draft for publication
Annual Report 2010/11, v 0.02
Date
8th August 2011
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